Today In Wrestling History- June 19th

1948 – The current National Wrestling Alliance was formed as promoters Sam Muchnick (St. Louis), Fred Kohler (Chicago), Wally Karbo (Minneapolis), & others joined with president Pinkie George (who had promoted under the NWA name since 1946)

In 2011, WWE Capitol Punishment was held at the Verizon Center, in Washington DC. With an attendance of 9,850. This event was originally billed as a continuation of the Fatal Four Way series, but was later renamed:

Also, today would have been the birthday of WCW and NWA Hall of Famer Wahoo McDaniel (76)

In Memoriam

On this day in 1997, the wrestling world lost one-time WWWF Champion Stan Stasiak aged 60. Stasiak, who took his ring name from a 1920′s wrestler, debuted in Quebec in 1958, & soon established himself in several NWA territories, winning championships in Vancouver, Calgary, Oregon and Australia before the 60′s were out. Stasiak began competing for the WWWF in the following decade, winning their Heavyweight Title in 1973. Unusually, Stasiak was not informed in advance that he would be winning the title, rather, he was approached by a road agent on the day of the match who detailed the finish. He would drop the title to Bruno Sammartino just 9 days later. He would continue to wrestle for the WWWF for much of the decade, but would only receive 1 further title opportunity, losing to Billy Graham in 1977. He would see out the rest of his career in NWA territories on the west coast, retiring to become a mall security guard in 1984. He died peacefully of heart failure